This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-301441, filed Sep. 29, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surgical operation navigation apparatus and method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a slice image at a periphery of a diseased site is acquired by a tomographic image acquisition technique such as CT or MRI prior to surgical operation, and surgical operation navigation is carried out by using a three-dimensionally reconstructed image using a technique such as computer graphics.
In addition, during surgical operation, a slice image is acquired as a real time monitor image by a technique such as mobile CT or open MRI.
For example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 9-173352 discloses a medical navigation system for displaying a correlation between a specified region of the inside or surface of a patient body corresponds and a region on a medical image, making it possible to easily grasp the correlation between them. In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-5245 discloses a surgical operation assisting apparatus comprising blood vessel sensing section for sensing a blood vessel in the vicinity of a tip end of a surgical operation utensil and notification section for notifying to an operator the blood vessel sensed by this blood vessel sensing section, thereby reducing a burden of the operator during surgical operation.
However, a real time monitor image acquired by intra-operative image acquisition cannot be generally acquired as a high definition image as compared with a post-operative image. Thus, it is considered to use a high definition image acquired prior to surgical operation, but the morphological shape of a diseased site is slightly modified post-operatively or intra-operatively. Therefore, the pre-operatively acquired high definition image could not be used as an intra-operative image of a diseased site as is.
The present invention has been made in order to solve the foregoing problem. It is an object of the present invention to provide a surgical operation navigation apparatus and method for modifying and storing a pre-operatively acquired high definition image of a diseased site, thereby making it possible to carry out surgical operation in real time using a high definition image of the diseased site during surgical operation as well.
In order to achieve the foregoing object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a surgical operation navigation apparatus, comprising:
medical image storage section for storing three-dimensional information of a subject measured by medical image diagnosis apparatus;
modification information storage section for modifying and storing three-dimensional information of a subject stored in the medical image storage section based on predicted modification of the subject;
morphological shape measuring instrument for measuring a three-dimensional morphological shape of the subject;
position/posture detecting section for detecting a subject and a position/posture of a surgical operation utensil that carries out observation of the subject;
modified morphological shape selecting section for comparing a three-dimensional morphological shape of the subject measured by the morphological shape measuring instrument with three-dimensional information stored in the modification information storage section, thereby selecting and outputting three-dimensional information of the subject which is the most analogous to a morphological shape of the subject from the modification information storage section;
data image generating section for generating data image from the selected, outputted three-dimensional information of the subject; and
image superimposing section for superimposing the data image from the data image generating section and the image of the subject from the surgical operation utensil on each other, thereby outputting the superimposed image to an image display device.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a surgical operation navigation apparatus, comprising:
medical image storage section for storing three-dimensional information of a subject measured by a medical image diagnosis apparatus;
modification information storage section for modifying and storing three-dimensional information of the subject stored in the medical image storage section based on predicted modification of the subject;
morphological shape measuring instrument for measuring a three-dimensional morphological shape of the subject;
position/posture detecting section for detecting a subject and a position/posture of a surgical operation utensil that carries out observation of the subject;
morphological shape information sampling section for sampling three-dimensional morphological shape information on a site that corresponds to the field of view of the surgical operation utensil from three-dimensional morphological shape information of the subject measured by the morphological shape measuring instrument based on position/posture information on a surgical operation utensil from the position/posture detecting section;
modification information sampling section for sampling three-dimensional morphological shape information on a site tat corresponds to the field of view of the surgical operation utensil from the modification information storage section based on position/posture information on the surgical operation utensil from the position/posture section;
modification information selecting section for comparing the morphological shape information sampling section with three-dimensional morphological shape information from the modification information sampling section, thereby selecting from the modification information sampling section a three-dimensional shape that is the most analogous to the morphological shape information from the morphological shape information sampling section;
data image generating section for generating data image from the selected, outputted three-dimensional morphological shape information of the subject; and
image superimposing section for superimposing data image from the data image generating section and an image of the subject from the surgical operation utensil on each other, followed by outputting the superimposed image to an image display device.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a surgical operation navigation apparatus, comprising:
medical image storage section for storing three-dimensional information of a subject measured by a medical image diagnosis apparatus;
modification information storage section for modifying and storing three-dimensional information of the subject stored in the medical image storage section based on predicted modification of the subject;
morphological shape measuring instrument for measuring a three-dimensional morphological shape of the subject;
position/posture detecting section for detecting a subject and a position/posture of a surgical operation utensil that carries out observation of the subject;
two-dimensional morphological shape information sampling section for sampling two-dimensional morphological shape information on a site that corresponds to the field of view of the surgical operation utensil from three-dimensional morphological shape information of the subject measured by the morphological shape measuring instrument based on position/posture information on a surgical operation utensil from the position/posture detecting section;
two-dimensional modification information sampling section for projecting the site that corresponds to the field of view of the surgical operation utensil from the modification information storage section, and then, sampling two-dimensional morphological shape information based on position/posture information on the surgical operation utensil from the position/posture detecting section;
modification information selecting section for comparing two-dimensional morphological shape information from the two-dimensional morphological shape information sampling section and the two-dimensional modification information sampling section with each other, selecting two-dimensional modification information that is the most analogous to two-dimensional morphological shape information from the two-dimensional morphological shape information sampling section, and then, outputting three-dimensional morphological shape information that corresponds to the two-dimensional modification information;
data image generating section for generating data image from the selected, outputted three-dimensional morphological shape information of the subject; and
image superimposing section for superimposing the data image from the data image generating section and the image of the subject from the surgical operation utensil on each other, followed by outputting the superimposed image data to an image display device.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a surgical operation navigation method, comprising the steps of:
storing three-dimensional information of a subject measured by a medical image diagnosis apparatus;
modifying and storing the stored three-dimensional information of a subject based on predicted modification of the subject;
measuring a three-dimensional morphological shape of the subject;
detecting a subject and a position/posture of a surgical operation utensil that carries out observation of the subject;
comparing the measured three-dimensional morphological shape of the subject with the stored three-dimensional information, thereby selecting and outputting three-dimensional information of the subject which is the most analogous to a morphological shape of the subject;
generating data image from the selected, outputted three-dimensional information of the subject; and
superimposing and displaying the generated data image from the data image generating section and the image of the subject from the surgical operation utensil on each other.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a surgical operation navigation method, comprising the steps of:
storing three-dimensional information of a subject measured by a medical image diagnosis apparatus;
modifying and storing the stored three-dimensional information of the subject based on predicted modification of the subject;
measuring a three-dimensional morphological shape of the subject;
detecting a subject and a position/posture of a surgical operation utensil that carries out observation of the subject;
sampling three-dimensional morphological shape information on a site that corresponds to the field of view of the surgical operation utensil from the detected three-dimensional morphological shape information of the subject based on position/posture information on a surgical operation utensil;
sampling three-dimensional information on a site that corresponds to the field of view of the surgical operation utensil from the modified and stored three-dimensional information of the subject based on the detected position/posture information on the surgical operation utensil;
comparing the three-dimensional morphological shape information with the three-dimensional information, thereby outputting a three-dimensional information that is the most analogous to the three-dimensional morphological shape information;
generating data image from the selected, outputted three-dimensional information of the subject; and
superimposing and outputting the generated data image and the image of the subject from the surgical operation utensil on each other.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a surgical operation navigation method, comprising the steps of:
storing three-dimensional information of a subject measured by a medical image diagnosis apparatus;
modifying and storing the stored three-dimensional information of the subject based on predicted modification of the subject;
measuring a three-dimensional morphological shape of the subject;
detecting a subject and a position/posture of a surgical operation utensil that carries out observation of the subject;
sampling two-dimensional morphological shape information on a site that corresponds to the field of view of the surgical operation utensil from the detected three-dimensional morphological shape information of the subject based on position/posture information on a surgical operation utensil;
projecting the site that corresponds to the field of view of the surgical operation utensil from the modified and stored three-dimensional information of the subject, and then, sampling two-dimensional morphological shape information based on position/posture information on the surgical operation utensil;
comparing the two-dimensional morphological shape information and the two-dimensional modification information with each other, selecting two-dimensional modification information that is the most analogous to the two-dimensional morphological shape information, and then, outputting three-dimensional morphological shape information that corresponds to the two-dimensional modification information;
generating data image from the outputted three-dimensional morphological shape information of the subject; and
superimposing and outputting the generated data image and the image of the subject from the surgical operation utensil on each other.